If you will, take your Bibles
and turn back to Exodus chapter 16. I talked to you last week a little
bit on this chapter. And I want to move now to verse
4 tonight. I may include more verses as
we go along, but primarily the message was taken from verse
4. And I want to talk to you a little while about God's breath. I believe this bread must be
rightly called God's bread. God's bread. It's God who gave
the bread. Behold, he says in Exodus 16,
4, I will rain bread from heaven. I will. I give it. I give it. It's God's bread. He sent it.
He gave it. He caused it to appear. God did. There wasn't any bread out there,
Glenn, until God put it out there. It was a wilderness. It was a
wilderness. And this bread came down from
heaven. It didn't rise up out of the
ground. It didn't suddenly appear the way folks want to talk about
things evolving. It didn't evolve on one of the
herb-bearing plants and appear suddenly on the end of it. It
didn't rise up out of the ground. It came down from heaven. God
gave this bread in such a way that we know, and they knew,
that it was God's bread. And no doubt to its origin, it
was heavenly bread. And being God's bread, it was
given for a reason. God gave it for a reason. Exodus
16.4, Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will wring bread
from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain
rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in
my law or not." I'm going to prove them. How is he going to
prove them? With the bread. With the bread. The giving of
man in the wilderness was to prove the Israel of God. That's what he's going to do.
Now how did manna in the wilderness prove God's people? How did he
do that? That seems a strange way to prove
a people. Why don't you just have them
stand up and be counted like Moses? He said, everybody on
the Lord's side come over here and line up. Why didn't God rain
bread down? He led them out into a wilderness
from the deep wells of Elam and that shade and rest in Elam. He led them out there in the
wilderness And until they got hungry and were starving, and
then he rained this bread down from heaven. And he said, I'm
going to do this to prove them. To prove them. Well, how did
he do that? Well, if a man truly trusted
the Lord, he'd gather what God set before him. That's what he'd
do. If he trusted God. There's nowhere
else to get it. They didn't have any. They didn't
have any of their own. The desert wouldn't provide them
with any. Nature couldn't produce it. God
rained His bread down. And the man who trusted in the
Lord, that man who was led of God out there, not just going
to who knows where, he was following the Lord. That man that trusted
God, he'd go out there and gather at the rate. You notice in that
verse, God gave him a certain rate. How did that read? He said that the people shall
go out and gather a certain rate every day. Every day. Well, how
did that prove that man of God? Because that man of God did that.
That's what he did. He went out and he gathered at
the rate God instructed him to gather it, and he was satisfied
with what God provided. Now, the deliverance of Israel
was just not really just a legal matter. This thing of deliverance
was not just a legal matter. That's what I try to preach today. There's a big controversy right
now about certain things. And one of those controversies
is this. They're trying to make the gospel and the deliverance
of God's grace strictly a legal matter. And there's a whole lot
more to this than just a legal transfer of sin. God's people
are going to be delivered from sin. God come down and got these
people over here and took them over here. He didn't leave them
over here. He didn't come down and satisfy
the law and just leave them in Egypt in bondage, but He took
them out of bondage. He destroyed their enemies and
He brought them all the way over to Canaan. And He preserved them
40 years out in this wilderness. It wasn't just a legal matter.
And it's not just a matter of defending or defeating their
enemies. This thing is a matter of heart
submission to God. That's what He's going to prove
here in this desert. That's what He's going to prove.
Who truly is His child. God's kingdom is unlike any kingdom
this world has ever known. God's kingdom. God's kingdom
is a kingdom where grace rules. That's the difference. Grace
rules in God's kingdom. Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. There is no one in God's kingdom who is not saved 100% by the
free and sovereign grace of God. Everybody in His kingdom is saved
in the same way. By grace are ye saved through
faith. Isn't that what he said? And
that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. This thing 100%,
100% by the free sovereign grace of God. It's not partly a work
of man and partly a work of God. It is, including the work that
men do, the sovereign effectual work of God's grace in me. Or
as Paul tells the Philippians, it is God. who worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure." If you do anything
that God has commanded you to do, you can bow your head and
bow your knees and thank God, knowing that it was God who worked
in you. You didn't do that of yourself.
You didn't do it. If you meet a trial, And you
meet that trial in grace. And you acknowledge who sent
it. And you know that God sent this thing. And it's of the Lord.
And you accept that thing. And you humbly bow before Him
and accept that providence as God. That's not you. That's God
who worketh in you. Both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. The flesh is not going to do
that. The flesh is not going to bow to Him. So this thing,
including the work that men do, is the sovereign effectual work
of God. And this work as it's accomplished
through our substitute and our representative, if you'll read
through Romans chapter 5, he goes all the way through there
and he just tells you about two men. He tells you about Adam
and he tells you about Christ. He tells you about the fall and
he tells you about redemption. He tells you how you become a
sinner. He tells you how you become a saint. This whole thing
was done through two representatives, Adam and Christ. In Christ, all
are alive. In Adam, all die. And he tells
us, he sums this whole thing up, this whole chapter where
he is talking about that. He sums up down in verse 21,
Romans chapter 5, saying this, that as sin hath reigned unto
death. What did sin do? It rained. It rained. It rained in the flesh. It rained in the world. And it
rained unto death. That as sin hath rained unto
death, even so, now watch it, might grace rain through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God's kingdom is unlike
any other kingdom. in that grace rules. Grace rules. Free, unmerited grace. And it's by Him and through Him
and for Him that God's kingdom exists and its people preserved
and kept in unity. Full, free, sovereign grace rules
in the kingdom of God. It's not the force of law or
fear or hell or threatenings of punishment that rule in God's
Israel. but the love of Christ and gratitude
of heart by way of their salvation in Him. That's what rules. It's
the love of God, Paul said, that constraineth us. And the teaching
and proving, therefore, of His people is not a testing of something
innate in them. He's not trying to see what's
in you. He knows what's in you. If you
have anything in you, He put it in there. Because there sure
wasn't anything in there from birth. And this testing and proving,
therefore, of His people is not a testing of something innate
in them, but a testing of their faith which God has given them,
which is the work of God's mercy and grace. So this proving is
a proving of the pure gold of His grace. That's why He put
you in the fire. And trials are not sent to draw
men away. James said men are drawn away
by their own lusts when they're enticed. They're enticed of Satan,
enticed by this world, enticed by false religion, and drawn
away of their own lusts. But trials are sent to prove.
And as silver and gold is tried in the fire and that dross taken
away, so trials prove the good work of God in you. Trials. You know, I was sitting around
thinking about this, how to illustrate this, but you don't, if you've
got a fire here and you're a silversmith or a goldsmith, you don't run
pig manure through the fire to see what's in it. You're not
going to run anything through the fire unless you believe there's
pure ore in it. Now, God takes this man and you
look at him and look at the next man, you can't see a lot of difference,
but God knows what's in him and he's going to expose it. He don't
run this man. Isn't that what David got angry
at? He said he didn't understand
the ease and lack of suffering and all this by the wicked. They're
just happy and living a good life and nothing ever seems to
go wrong. You know, two houses. They got
one here and one down southern Florida somewhere. And they retire
at 40 years old. And they've got it all. And there's
no bans, he said, in their death. They're not worried about death.
David's struggling over this new man and old man. And am I
saved or am I not? And he's going back and forth
and struggling. And he looks at this man, and
this man's in perfect day. And he got upset about that,
he said, until he went to the tabernacle, didn't he? Until he went into the synagogue,
until he went into worship and God revealed to him. God's not
testing this man because there's no war in him. But he's trying,
David. Passing him through the fire
and burning away the dross. He tells us over in the Corinthians
that all that is hay, wood, and stubble are going to be burned
up. And that this flesh is going to be made manifest for what
it is. He said, you can mark it down, the day will declare
it. For it shall be tried by fire. Now, according to our text, God
sent manna unto Israel in the wilderness to prove them. And
they were to gather one omer per person. That was their allotment.
That was the rate that God told them to gather. He set this out
at the very beginning. Each man is going to gather an
omer. And if he's out here and he's gathering for his house,
each one in his house, he can gather an omer for each one of
them. And they'll take it in and then they're to eat it. The
man who trusted God would go out and he'd pick up what God
allowed for him for the day. He wouldn't gather any more.
God told him the foolishness of that. If you gather more,
he said, it's going to breed worms and it's going to stink.
So don't get any more. And he wouldn't gather any less.
He wouldn't gather less. He was allowed to have an omer,
and an omer is what he took. He didn't take any less. Now,
keep in mind where they're at. They're out here in the wilderness.
There's no food out there. The only food is the manna. Nobody's
going to ignore it. Everybody's going to go out and
gather. But it's the way they gathered that proved them. The only thing they had to eat
is what God was pleased to give. To take less would be to deny
their need of the bread, wouldn't it? Huh? That's to deny your
need of the bread. Well, I just don't think we ought
to meet three times a week. You deny your need of the bread. That's right. That's exactly
right. Well, I just think we just meet
one time, don't you? Just have one service. They don't
need to have all these services. We can go home and listen to
tapes. We can read books. We can do this. There's no need
to come in here. There's no need unless you're
hungry. When you're hungry, you come when the table's set. Everybody
went out. When God said that manna was
going to be there, everybody went out to pick it up. Everybody
went out to pick it up because they didn't know The rest of
that day, there won't be any manna. There won't be no manna. There will be manna in the morning.
Isn't that what he said? A man who believes God, he gathers
according to God's direction. God told him, when the dew is
lifted, there will be the manna. Now, the dew isn't going to lift
until the sun comes up, is it? Huh? Until the light of God comes
up. And that man who believed God,
he'd gather according to God's direction. And then secondly,
the man who truly believed would eat all that he gathered. He'd
eat every bit of it. He'd eat every bit of it. And
this manna, it was a strange food. The temptation was to go
out there and take an omer, but you get to thinking about tomorrow,
what if it rains tomorrow? What if it rains and there won't
be no manna? You know, it does rain occasionally,
even out in the desert. So why don't we just keep back
some of this? We won't eat it all. He told me I could have
an omer. So I'm going to get an omer, but I ain't going to
eat it. I'm only going to eat a half omer. And tomorrow I'm going
to eat the other half. Well, it's full of worms and
spank too, just like if you gathered too much. He gathered and he
ate all that he gathered. And it was a strange food. It
was good and plentiful and sweet and made perfect bread for the
day. But if you tried to save it up or gather more than what
God said to gather, it was bad. It wouldn't last. And nobody
likes wormy bread. You couldn't keep the manna.
To have it, you must go gather it at the appropriate time. I
tell you, there's so much in me and so much in you and so
much in all of us who truly believe. There's just so much in us. of
wanting to, what's the word I'm hunting for? We want to ignore
or take advantage of this thing of preaching. Now we do. We all
do it. We do it in preparation to come
in here. We're to prepare our hearts before
we come down here. But we don't do it. We don't
do it. Often we don't. Now I don't want to make a Great
big issue out of all this, but at the same time, I don't want
to ignore it either. God's spiritual manna is Christ. Now that's His manna. We're told
that very plain in John chapter 6. The bread of God, He said,
is He which cometh down from heaven. That's God's bread. That's
what this bread was all about. It was typical of Christ, and
He said this in John 6, verse 51. He said, I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever." And there are several significant things
here that you need to see concerning this manna of God. First of all,
he says here in verse 4 that his manna would rain down from
heaven, now watch this, for Moses. Let's read that verse again.
Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from
heaven for you." Ain't that what that says? For you. Hmm. I've never seen that before. Now, it's not for him in the
sense that it wasn't to be eaten by anybody else. That's not what
he's saying there. But it was for his ministry to
the deliverance of Israel. God appointed him in charge of
this group of people. Now he's going to feed them through
Moses. And he's not going to ignore
Moses even in the giving of the bread. Because he says immediately
after that, he said, I'm going to give it for you, and the people
shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. every day. It was for His ministry to the
deliverance of Israel. And in the same sense, God sends
the Gospel revelation for His servant, but not just to be eaten
solely by him, but by those who are enabled of God to gather
it as He gives it to them through Him. So God's manner is God's
means to both feed and to prove His pilgrim. and hungry pilgrims
all showed up at the time given of God. They all showed up. They
knew when to go out. They didn't just happen on this
thing. It was God told them where the
bread was going to be. And they knew right where to
go and when to go. When to go. They didn't go out
in the evening. Now some of them didn't listen to Him. He told
them they couldn't go out on Sabbath day at all. They would
go out there on Friday and gather enough for Friday and Saturday.
So what'd they do? They went out on Saturday afternoon
with their baskets, going to get some manna, but there wasn't
any man out there. He told them there wasn't going
to be any man out there. He told them when the manna was
going to be there, and he told them what time of day to gather,
and he said, you can't wait until the sun comes up. Sun comes up,
it all melts. It all melted. There's just a
certain time for this manna. This manna was not meant to just
be out there for your convenience. I'm telling you that's another
thing I'm seeing in this country is folks just laying over to
the side for convenience sake and waiting on God to dust a
little manna over here when he tells them here's the manna.
Come and eat. Well, it's just not convenient
for me. You see, this is convenient for
me. This is where my family is. Which
family? Those that shall be enemies shall
be those of your own household. Is that what you're talking about?
What is this convenience? This job? Is that what it is?
I can't give up my job because I've got such a good job. I don't
want to give up my job. I might have to go somewhere
where the gospel is being preached and work for a third of what
I'm making over here. Why can't I just sit over here
and listen to tape? Because that ain't where the
man is. The man is where God says it is. That's where it is. And the manna can be gathered
when God says it's time to eat. That's when you go get the manna.
If you don't go get it then, you ain't going to get it. What
you're going to get is wormy bread or melted manna. That's
what you're going to get. The same sense God sends the
Gospel revelation for His servants. And it's to be eaten by all who
are unable of God to gather it to themselves. And it's God's
means. And hungry pilgrims all show
up when God tells them to. And they eat that manna. And
then secondly, God's manna appeared only after the sun come up. And
there's a lot to be said there, but Peter sums this all up. He
said, we have a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do
well that you take heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark
place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That manna appeared when the
sun come up. That's when it appeared. That
sun lifted that dew, and under that dew was the manna. Now you
can't eat manna until you see it, can you? Huh? You say, well, why don't folks
flock in here? We see this. We've tasted of
it. We've tasted of the heavenly
breath. Why don't folks come in? They can't see it. They can't
see it. You can't eat what you can't
see. It has to be revealed. This bread was revealed. It required
the light of the sun to prepare this bread to be eaten. And then
thirdly, manna only appeared to Israel in the wilderness.
The Canaanites didn't have any manna. And the Hittites didn't
have any manna. Just Israel had manna. And of
all places in the wilderness. In the wilderness. They didn't
have any manna in Egypt. And there ain't no manna in Canaan. And nobody saw manna but Israel. And then fourthly, true Israel
saw this manna as God's provision for life. They didn't see it
as some kind of poisonous fruit that they were reluctant to take
hold of or reluctant to eat or gather. They didn't see it that
way. Or they didn't see it as some
last desperate measure to win them over or something optional
that they could eat or not eat. They saw it as God's means to
save their soul. And they went out and they gathered
and they ate. And then, fifthly, all those
who gathered didn't have the same intention. Most of them,
in fact, didn't follow God's instruction. They tried to save
it up when He told them not to. They tried to gather it when
He said it wasn't going to be there. They tried everything
that God said that wasn't going to work, they tried it. They
tried it. And then sixthly, all those who
believed ate what God provided. Manna in a basket is not going
to do you any good. Manna on a coffee table ain't
going to do you no good. Manna in here ain't going to
do you no good. You're going to have to eat it.
You're going to have to eat it. That manna didn't do them a bit
of good laying on the ground. It was given to them to eat.
It wasn't given to them to argue over. It wasn't given to them
to speculate about. And they didn't hold it up and
scientifically try to tell you what it was made out of. That
didn't do any good either. The only thing that gave you
anything, worth anything, was when you took the manna and ate
it. And ate it. Brethren, I don't I don't boast
to be something that I'm not. I don't boast to be a wise man
or a gifted man or a highly educated man. My only claim is to be called
of God. And what God gives to me of His
bread, I do my best to give to you. If He don't give it to me,
I can't give it to you. I just can't do it. And I refuse
to debate over what God gives me. I can't find a single instance
all the way through the Bible where Moses went out and tried
to explain the manner to anybody. He didn't know it. And I just
refused to debate over it. He didn't debate over it. He
didn't attempt to define it. He didn't attempt to make it
palatable to unbelieving men. He just said it out there before
them. Here's the manner. Here's the manner. Go eat. Go
eat. And the hungry men ate the manna.
In fact, our Lord said it was hidden from the wise and prudent.
Isn't that what He said over in Matthew? When they rejected
Him and rejected His words and mocked what He said among the
people, the Lord bowed His head and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. hidden from the wise and the
prudent. Now listen to me. There is a paradoxical mystery
declared in the eating of the manna. I looked at this this
afternoon and I thought, man, what a paradox. This fits true
faith and the preaching of the gospel better than any of the
types that I've ever seen. Is this right here? And, you
know, when our Lord was defending His ministry and preaching to
them and talking to them about this very bread, this is the
very thing that He was preaching to. What I'm about to tell you.
There's a paradoxical mystery declared in the eating of the
manna. And this is what they got upset
about. Well, how can we eat His flesh? How can we drink His blood?
This man's nuts. He's nuts. It was God's bread. It was sent from God. It was
revealed by God. It's created by God. There's
nothing else on earth to compare it to. There's nothing else like
it, this manna. Yet, at the same time, it was
to be gathered by men and eaten by men and prepared by men at
the very same time. Turn with me to Numbers chapter
11. I was talking to brother Marvin today and he said he'd
never even thought about this. But Israel didn't go out there
and take this manna and scoop it up in her hand like it was
a bunch of jelly beans and throw it in her mouth. That's not how
this manna was eaten. They made bread with this manna.
You didn't just take a handful off the ground and throw it in
your mouth. It was tiny. It was like coriander. You ever
seen a snow that's almost a powder? It don't really have a flake
to it. It's not really hail, and it ain't really snow. It's
just that little round ball. You see them? They don't last
no time. But when they land there, they're not like a snowflake.
They don't come down like that. They just fall down, and they
land and just last a few seconds, a little wet thing. But they're
little round. That's what this was, tiny. round,
almost dust-like. There it was. Then they couldn't
just go out there and grab it, throw it in their mouth. They
had to be prepared. They processed the manna. Now
watch this. Numbers 11, verse 7. And the
manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof was the
color of bdellium. I don't want to get any big thing
about this, but basically it looks like a pearl. The color
of a pearl. I was more satisfied with that
than any of the other things I read on it. And the people went about and
gathered it, now watch this, and ground it in mills or beat
it into mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it. This
manor had to be processed. Had to be processed. And my point
here is this, that they didn't just swallow it whole, they processed
the manna. I don't expect men and women
when they come in here and I stand up and preach, just swallow everything
I say whole. I expect it to be processed.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. He takes what you
hear and He processes it. He gives you an understanding
of it. He applies it to your needs.
He gives you the need for it, Russell. And he explains how
it fits the need. And he explains what you have
to do to eat it. How does it help you? How can
I eat this? How can I process it? That's
the work of the Holy Spirit of God in you. They processed. They processed the manna. And
this mysterious work of the Holy Ghost in us is the way the gospel
manna is processed in the heart and mind. It's understood, it's
applied, it's eaten, it's chewed and swallowed. All of those words
are used in the New Testament talking about faith. Faith is
not the blind faith that religion talks about. Real saving faith
sees and knows and understands, and they understand not only
what they believe, they understand whom they believe. They know
Him. And God's manna is revealed and
set before the people where His servant and where His assembly
is gathered in the wilderness. Now that was a big wilderness,
but manna didn't fall all over it. It just fell right there
where the assembly was. Isn't that something? Now you
do what you want to with that, but I'm telling you that's where
the manna always falls. That's where it falls. You don't
believe me? Go on out in the wilderness and
try to find some. It ain't out there. And it's
attended and gathered by all those who are instructed of God
to go get it. They all know where to find it.
And it's gathered by all that are hungry to be eaten. And all
that gather it to eat, they know to process what God has given
them into bread. And eating this bread, it's transformed
in such a way in us as to become a part of us and enable us to
walk with God in this cursed land. What they ate was just
like eating a beefsteak to a natural man. It gave him the energy and
power to become one with him and he was able to go walk and
work and do it and serve and do all things that natural men
do. And it's the same thing in the
spiritual sense in which we walk in faith. Now, how does this
manner relate to our walk today? Well, I think it manifests itself
in the hearing of the gospel. I've used that instance several
times tonight. And then it also manifests itself
in a daily reading of the Word of God and prayer. You know,
that outline of prayer I gave you in the study in Matthew Sunday?
Give us this day our daily bread. Ain't that what he said? Sure
it is. And then it manifests itself
in the grace of God's providence. Now I suppose we could preach
a whole message on that. But these were pilgrims in a
hostile environment. Are not we in the same shape
spiritually? In a harsh environment. God gives
us grace for today. For today. For today's need and
today's trials and today's suffering. Isn't that what he used? I pointed
that out to Walter one day. How many times over there in
Hebrews, I think it's chapter 4, chapter 3. How many times that word today
is capitalized all the way through there. Today. Today. And those who truly believe live
on the bread day to day. The just shall live by faith. And he lives every day. Every
day. They eat what God provides for
today, and they go out again tomorrow looking for that day's
provision. God proved Israel not in a day. Now listen to me. Not in a day. But day by day, all their days. That's how He proved them. Day
by day, all their days. And true Israel will be revealed
in their satisfaction with the bread. Now isn't that what our
Lord was talking about over in John chapter 6? That whole multitude
turned away from Him. They said, this man's nuts. He's
talking about eating flesh and drinking blood and bread. He's a nut. And that great big
multitude that He fed over there with a few fishes and a few loaves
that went all the way around the lake to hear it. Then he
gives them this sermon about the bread, and they all turn
around and walk away like he's a cannibal or something. He's
just nuts. They couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
And he turned around to 12, and he said, will you go too? Now,
he's proving them by the bread, ain't he? They said, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. You're the bread. Where else we going to go? Where
else we going to go? The true believer knows and recognizes
the Word of God in the preaching of the Gospel, and he reasons
the same way those disciples did. To whom shall we go? Where are we going to go? If
this place folds its door, closes its door, and turns out to light,
where are you going to go? Huh? You ain't going to find
it down the street. I've already looked. You ain't
going to find it on the TV. I turn it on every Sunday. Where
are you going to go? You're going to go where God
puts the bread or you ain't going to eat. So let's pray that God
don't close the door. Our Father, take the lesson tonight and apply it to our hearts. I'm not trying to make folks
angry. I'm not trying to be judgmental. I just want folks to know the
importance of gathering this bread where it's to be found,
and when it's to be found, and how it's to be found. Oh, open
our hearts and cause us to apply ourselves to these things and
to prepare our hearts as we come here to hear. And then come in
here, let our hearts be raised up in gratitude and thanksgiving
to thee. Oh, we could be no different
than the rest of this world. We could still be wandering around
in our ignorance. But by your grace and for your
great love wherewith you've loved us, you've given us an understanding. Make us thankful for it and hope
in it and walk in it for Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed.